For Retama regulars, woman’s big win something to celebrate

Margaret Reid of Austin poses Saturday, May 5, 2018 in a courtesy photo provided by Retama Park in Selma after she won a $1.2 million payout on a Pick 5 bet that included the Kentucky Derby. A Pick 5 bet involves correctly picking the winning horse in five consecutive races at a track.

Margaret Reid of Austin poses Saturday, May 5, 2018 in a courtesy...

SELMA — Just before noon on a Monday, nobody is working behind the bar of the Trifecta Express grill at Retama Park. The taps are not flowing, and at this moment it is unclear if they ever were.

This does not bother the only person occupying one of the green-upholstered stools. A slim, mustachioed gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair peers up at one of the flat-screen TVs over his reading glasses, and he jots down notes in his racing form with a ballpoint pen. In front of him on the bar lie stacks of betting slips, a cell phone, and a bottle of water.

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He asks to be identified only as Chelo. The cackling buddies milling around the tables across the room refer to him as “The Professor.” The lot of them are here most days, forever seduced by this mixture of cigarette smoke and irrational hope, and they say The Professor wins more than he loses.

That’s all they were doing two days earlier, when they watched a quiet, dignified Austin woman named Margaret Reid walk into the room, place $18 worth of bets on the Kentucky Derby, and end up winning $1.2 million.

Because she did not hoot and holler, because she did not betray any sense of nervousness even as each of the five horses she’d picked in five consecutive races at Churchill Downs on Saturday kept winning, almost none of the people around her realized what was happening until it was over.

“She didn’t even look excited,” says Kenneth Cotton, a Retama regular since it opened in 1995. “But after she left, everybody knew.”

And on Monday afternoon, Reid’s big score was the biggest topic of conversation among the four dozen or so men — and two women — who roamed around the grandstand level at Retama, placing bets on simulcast thoroughbred races from Finger Lakes and Thistledown, dog races from Palm Beach, and harness races from The Meadows.

On weekdays like this, the median age of the patrons is well north of 50. Three bettors carry canes, and two wear cowboy hats. Cotton, in his Martin Luther King, Jr., T-shirt and Vietnam veteran baseball cap, counts as one of the more spry-looking men in the building.

He’s learned a thing or two about horse racing over the years. But it’s not a love for the sport of kings that keeps him coming back.

“I’m just a gambler,” Cotton says. “I’ll bet on anything. If you would’ve woke me up this morning and told me some man would’ve wanted to interview me for the newspaper today, I would’ve bet you on that.”

And Cotton, The Professor and their pals all are willing to bet Reid didn’t do much studying for the bet that made her rich. She won what is known as a “Pick Five” bet, which required her to select the winners of five different races before the first one began.

Cotton said he once won a “Pick Four” that paid him more than $4,000. The Professor showed me a slip that showed he won $19,100 on a “Pick Five” earlier this year. But Reid’s winnings were much higher because she included some long shots.

The longest was Funny Duck, who came in at 40-to-1 in the 10th race at Churchill Downs. In the next race, she had Yoshida at 10-to-1. The only big favorite Reid picked was Justify, who won the 12th race to give her a seven-figure payday.

Cotton and the Professor can’t believe there was a method to her madness.

“Birthdays and lucky numbers, that’s the only way you’re going to hit that,” The Professor says. “It’s impossible to bet those horses.”

Still, the regulars want to be clear about something — they’re happy for her.

“Why would I be resentful?” Cotton asks. “Why should I have animosity? She did what we’re all trying to do. I say, ‘Congratulations.’”

Later, Cotton approaches with some big news. As it turns out, Reid just walked into the building to collect her check.

She is surrounded by well-wishers, even as she seems completely nonplussed by the situation. She politely declines an interview but assures me she is “happy and thankful.”

As Reid is whisked upstairs, she has a brief conversation with a tall, older man in a Kangol hat, who later says he has known her since they used to bet together at Manor Downs before it closed.

He asks to be identified as Bob, and he insists The Professor has it wrong about Reid’s betting acumen.

“She’s a good handicapper,” Bob says.

I ask Bob what he thinks Reid will do with $1.2 million, and he admits he doesn’t know, but says he would buy a house. Then I get to a question he finds more interesting.

If he ever wins that much money, would we ever see him at Retama Park again?